As the first "emperor" in Chinese history, Qin Shi Huang had a profound impact on the social development of China for more than two thousand years. Therefore, when talking about the history of China, it is inevitable to talk about Qin Shi Huang, which is the focus of discussion, but when it comes to Qin Shi Huang, it is inevitable that two parties will have a fierce debate on the merits and deeds of Qin Shi Huang.
One faction said that Qin Shi Huang was good, swept away the unification of the six kingdoms and the world, wrote the same book and car on the same track, cut down the Xiongnu to build the Great Wall, and followed the trend of history to establish centralized power, and a new chapter in Chinese history began. The other faction said that Qin Shi Huang was bad, he was cruel and ruthless, burned books and destroyed culture, extensively repaired palaces and labored the people and hurt their wealth, and cruelly punished people with heavy labor, causing the people to live in deep water
。 Qin Shi Huang is such a controversial historical figure, his merits and demerits have always been the focus of debate, but regardless of the good or bad intentions of Qin Shi Huang, his governing measures have a far-reaching impact on future generations, and it is not an exaggeration to be called "an emperor throughout the ages". So where is the contribution of Qin Shi Huang, as the founder of the new era, what things he has done that have never been done before, to be said slowly by the author.
First of all, the first item is that Qin Shi Huang unified the six kingdoms, established centralized power, and laid the basic pattern of China's political system for more than two thousand years.
In the eleventh year of the First Emperor (236 BC), Qin Shi Huang, after resolving the internal political struggle, appointed a capable minister and began to formally advance the strategy of destroying the Six Kingdoms and unifying the world. In the seventeenth year of the First Emperor (230 BC), under the army of the State of Qin, Korea, one of the Six Kingdoms, was destroyed, and by the twenty-sixth year of the First Emperor (221 BC), the State of Qi was destroyed, and all the Six Kingdoms were annihilated.
Qin Shi Huang spent about 10 years to successively annex the Six Kingdoms, end the war, complete the great cause of reunification, and make the land of China enter the era of great empire.
After Qin Shi Huang destroyed the Six Kingdoms, he believed that the previous title of monarch could not show his merits, and finally created the title of "Emperor" as the title of the supreme ruler of Chinese feudal society, and sanctified its status. In addition, Qin Shi Huang pioneered the establishment of a complete centralized system of centralization, and also adopted Li Si's opinions, abolished the sub-feudal system, changed to the county system, strengthened the central imperial power, and weakened the power of local institutions. Although the State of Qin existed only briefly in the long river of history, the idea of great unification and the supremacy of imperial power generated by Qin Shi Huang had a great impact on later rulers. Although the centralized system and the county system are not perfect, they have laid a political pattern for more than two thousand years and have been imitated and improved by future generations.
The second item is that the book is the same text, the six languages are abolished, the "small seal" is used uniformly, and the "Lishu" is later created.
The script used by different countries is different, and Qin Shi Huang knew that this would greatly hinder economic and cultural exchanges, and the differences in various regions would also affect the transmission and implementation of central directives and the stability of his rule. After the unification of the Central Plains, he asked Li Si to organize and sort out the work of unifying the characters, and through the reorganization and revision, the "Small Seal" was used as the official text and the writings of other regions were abolished. Since then, the "Lishu" script has been formulated and popularized to all localities, and the "Lishu" has broken the traditional writing and laid the foundation for the emergence of the Script
。 Qin Shi Huang ordered the unification of the script and the introduction of simplified writing, which is a key summary of the evolution of Chinese hieroglyphs.
This text reform is undoubtedly an important step in the spread and development of Chinese culture, and we cannot imagine what life would be like in China without a unified script.
The third is that the car is on the same track and the degree is the same system.
The unified unit of measurement, with the reference of the Qin state, measurement and weighing instruments during the Shang martingale period, is used as the standard for calculating the length, size, and weight of the fight throughout the country.
The formulation of unified standards, whether it is for officials or the people, is a great convenience, facilitating exchanges between various localities and accelerating the exchange of political, economic, and cultural activities in various regions.
During the Warring States period, the monetary systems of various countries were very inconsistent, after the unification of the Six Kingdoms of Qin, the economic trade of various regions was extremely inconvenient, and the trading system was very chaotic, so Qin Shi Huang ordered the regulation of currency, stipulating that the currency was divided into gold and copper: gold was called the upper coin, copper coin was called the lower coin, gold coin was mainly for the emperor's reward, and copper coin was the main medium of circulation. It also stipulates that the scope of minting currency belongs only to the state, prohibits any private coinage, and severely punishes violators, which has affected and is still practiced in various countries.
The fourth point is to expand the territory, build the Great Wall, and build transportation.
After destroying the Six Kingdoms and unifying the Central Plains, Qin Shi Huang began the strategy of great unification. The Southern Expedition to Baiyue has since subdivided the entire Lingnan region into the territory of the Qin State, and the migration of the Central Plains to Lingnan has played a non-negligible role in ethnic integration and the economic and cultural development of the Lingnan region. Attacking the Xiongnu in the north, in order to relieve the Long-term incursion of the Xiongnu, Qin Shi Huang sent troops to march, the Xiongnu were not able to defeat the Qin army and moved north, ending years of harassment, in addition to encouraging immigrants to develop northern Xinjiang and open up the southwest, the Qin state extended its political power into the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau.
The Construction of the Great Wall to resist the northern nomads, making it a natural boundary between agricultural peoples and nomadic peoples, the Great Wall also served as the "identity" of the national border for a long time. At the same time, the Great Wall also played a part of the role of facilitating the supply of materials on the front line of the war, in addition to the construction of chi roads and canals by Qin Shi Huang, which also accelerated the economic and cultural exchanges between various regions.
Qin Shi Huang was the founder of the feudal dynasty, and what he did was unprecedented, and there was no experience of any predecessor to learn from. Problems may be the norm, his fault is that he did not do the right things at the right time, and posterity is constantly improving and perfecting under the general pattern of Qin Shi Huang. There are not many events that can be debated endlessly by people, and Qin Shi Huang is the focus of controversy, as an emperor of thousands of years, his merits have affected the future generations for more than two thousand years.